


have yourself a merry little christmas now

by armchairaloof



Category: Star Wars: The Clone Wars (2008) - All Media Types
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, Christmas!, F/M, Gen, Las Vegas, and the magic of christmas!, magic!, yes i know i'm scraping the bottom of the barrel, yes i'm stealing titles from classic christmas songs now
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-12-11
Updated: 2020-12-20
Packaged: 2021-03-10 19:41:52
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 17,104
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/28012605
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/armchairaloof/pseuds/armchairaloof
Summary: In which a death, an owl, and a Christmas dragon conspire to bring a family back together.Did I mention Christmas?
Relationships: Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano, Bail Organa & Ahsoka Tano, CC-2224 | Cody & Obi-Wan Kenobi, CT-7567 | Rex/Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Ahsoka Tano, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker, Obi-Wan Kenobi & Anakin Skywalker & Ahsoka Tano
Comments: 27
Kudos: 67





	1. Christmas Eve – Bail

**Author's Note:**

> Honestly, someone help me. The only thing I can write now are AUs with increasingly specific backgrounds and situations. Please, my family is dying.
> 
> But anyway, enjoy this six-part fic loosely mirroring everyone's walkabouts after the fall of the Republic and then the magic of Christmas bringing them together again, all in a modern setting!

The sound of cheers and applause from the audience almost drowned out the furious voices shouting at each other backstage. Bail Organa stood to the side of main curtains and could only hope that the argument wasn’t audible from the stage.

“Where did you learn that fire-throwing trick, Anakin? That could have seriously injured someone!”

“You know where it’s from.” The words were snarled, nothing like the showiness of the speaker’s usual stage voice.

“He’s using you, don’t you see?! He’s corrupting you!”

“He’s _helping_ me! Which is more than you’ve ever done!”

Bail sighed and looked out at the half-empty tables in the audience. The Christmas Eve show was never their most popular. He supposed that was partially his fault. His attention had been pulled in a million different directions lately, and his small club just off the Las Vegas Strip was the unfortunate victim. They often went overlooked by the big-name acts and patrons—equally important in this town. Only the ones without traditions came this night. And the ones trying to make their own traditions.

It was usually one of the staff’s favorite nights though, with the highlight being Kenobi’s magic show with his found-orphan siblings, with whom practically all his employees were friendly to some degree. But the talent’s friction was wearing off on everyone tonight, Bail included.

He stood just off the stage, half hidden behind the deep red curtain that blocked the escalating argument behind him. In the center of the stage bathed in blinding lights, Ahsoka Tano was performing her first solo act as a part of her brothers’ magic show. She’d been his assistant manager at the club for over a year now when she wasn’t touring with Obi-Wan and Anakin, and secretly he’d always thought she made a better manager than magician. But she was determined to succeed—in anything she did—and make her brothers proud.

Well, Bail was proud. And so sad for her that Obi-Wan and Anakin weren’t watching.

“That man is a crook and a fraud, Anakin!”

“If anything, you’re the fraud! You aren’t even _half_ the magician that he is.”

Ahsoka did another flourishing pirouette that ended in a red and green flash of cold fireworks. Bail had to resist the urge to clap and cheer. He’d seen her perform that one dozens of times, all perfectly, but he still got chills whenever he saw it.

“Gentlemen, perhaps you’d like to have this discussion another time,” another deep voice said from behind him.

“Oh get off your high horse, Rex.”

Bail clenched his fist. He’d been carefully ignoring their argument, but it was beginning to escalate.

“Do not speak to him that way, Anakin!” Obi-Wan admonished, just as loud.

“I’ll speak to whoever I want, however I want!”

Ahsoka was transitioning into her finale now. She ran diagonally across the stage, leaping into several complicated front flips that Bail knew she’d been practicing for months. Rex brushed past his shoulder as he prepared to walk onto the stage to hand Ahsoka the large metal rings she would use for her final magic trick.

“Sorry, sir,” Rex whispered. Bail just nodded and waved him forward.

He watched as Rex presented the rings to Ahsoka and she thanked him by producing a bouquet of paper flowers from behind her back. Rex must not have been expecting that because in the next moment he faltered charmingly and blushed. The audience laughed and cooed appropriately.

“You know what? I’m done. If you can’t respect my talent, then we’re over.”

A heavy pause, filled only with the incongruous laughter of the crowd.

“If that’s the way you want it.”

“It is.”

Bail finally looked away from center stage and turned to find Anakin and Obi-Wan seething as they faced each other. He felt such immeasurable pity for the two men.

The faint sound of applause was the only warning before Ahsoka bounded across the stage and into the midst of her brothers’ fight.

“Did you see that, guys?” she asked excitedly, unaware of the turmoil closing in on her for one blissful moment longer.

“Yeah, you were great, Snips,” Anakin muttered dismissively. Ahsoka’s face fell.

Oh how Bail would like to punch that man.

Obi-Wan finally ended his angry staring match with Anakin and turned fully to address Ahsoka. “I’m sorry, dear. I’m afraid we missed the end.” And the beginning and middle. “But _Anakin_ has some news he’d like to share,” he gritted out.

“What is it?” Ahsoka asked in a small voice, all of her post-performance adrenaline visibly fading. It had been many years since Bail heard her speak with the kind of fear in her voice that only a young person who’s been forced to deal with impossible burdens has.

Anakin glared at Obi-Wan once more for good measure and then put on an approximation of an excited grin as he turned to Ahsoka. “I’m gonna start my own act with my new mentor. Isn’t that great?”

“You mean that old guy that does the lame ‘dark’ magic tricks?” she said skeptically.

“They’re not lame,” Anakin said frustratedly. “And his name is Palpatine.”

“So you’re leaving us.” Her voice was frighteningly empty of emotion.

“I can’t live like this anymore, Snips. I’ve gotta get serious about performing if I wanna make it,” Anakin whined. “You get it, right?”

“Anakin…” Obi-Wan warned.

“Hey, you can come with! I’m sure Palpatine would appreciate having an assistant! I’ll be his partner, of course, but I know you’re not really into the whole magic thing anyway, right?”

Bail stepped closer to the trio, sensing this argument had just taken a turn. He saw Ahsoka’s fists clench around a bouquet of roses—real this time—someone in the audience must have thrown on stage for her.

“Get out,” Ahsoka said flatly.

Anakin startled. He looked wildly between Obi-Wan and Ahsoka as if they were the ones betraying him. “Hey, that’s not—! It doesn’t have to be like this, really!”

“Get out,” she repeated quietly. “Both of you.”

Obi-Wan’s eyes widened. “Ahsoka—”

“We’re done.”

Bail caught Rex’s eye from where he was hovering just outside of their little circle. He nodded his chin in Ahsoka’s direction and Rex gave him a grim nod in return.

“Fine. I don’t need this,” Anakin spat. “This was a mistake from the beginning!” He turned on his heel and stormed out the back exit to the alley, slamming the door behind him.

Obi-Wan hung his head. “I’m sorry, Ahsoka,” he said softly, then headed for the door at the front of the club.

Bail stayed long enough to see Ahsoka be gathered into Rex’s arms before he quietly slipped away too. He’d seen the fractures in Obi-Wan and Anakin’s relationship developing, but he never expected it to come crashing down quite so disastrously. He knew they’d never be the same after this.

He retreated to his cramped office back next to the storage room and collapsed in the desk chair. The club’s speakers were still playing the soft Christmas music they put on between shows.

_Let your heart be light_

_From now on our troubles will be out of sight_

Bail rubbed at his eyes and wished he could fix this whole mess. Spread out on the desk were various draft blueprints and contracts he needed to review for his next venture. He’d invested the family fortune to great success and now he was finally on the verge of making his dreams a reality. His professional dreams, at least.

_Here we are as in olden days_

_Happy golden days of yore_

_Faithful friends who are dear to us_

_Gather near to us, once more_

He picked up a flyer for the Christmas Eve show that was hidden amongst the clutter. Obi-Wan, Anakin, and Ahsoka smiled back at him from the depths of cheap printer ink. Maybe there was a way he could salvage the situation. For some of them, anyway. And maybe someday… with a minor Christmas miracle, his friends would come back together whole again.

_And have yourself a merry little Christmas now..._


	2. Obi-Wan

_15 years later_

_Four days to Christmas_

Obi-Wan was awoken from his nap rather suddenly by a heavy object being thrown onto his chest. It was only through years of expecting the unexpected that saved him from falling completely out of the hammock.

“What the…?”

He instinctively grabbed the object—a heavy pile of papers—as he struggled to sit up with any amount of dignity.

“It’s a newspaper, old man. Do you remember those?”

Obi-Wan squinted at the hazy figure backlit by the late afternoon sun. “Oh hello, Ahsoka.”

“Or are you too much of a desert hermit to remember things like newspapers and modern society?”

He rubbed the sand grit out of his eyes. “Did I forget someone’s birthday again?”

He extricated himself from the hammock and stood up, bones and joints creaking in protest. Truthfully, he was a bit worried about Ahsoka’s sudden unannounced visit and its implications. She was an infrequent guest at his estate, and only in the last few years had their relationship really settled into something close to what it had been.

“Well, yes. But I don’t care about birthdays.” Obi-Wan grimaced. That hadn’t always been the case. “Anyway, that’s not why I’m here,” she continued. “Obituaries. Second column, halfway down.”

He sighed and unfolded the newspaper he still held. It was the Las Vegas Sun, dated today. It took him a while to find the obituaries section—he really hadn’t read a newspaper in some time. Ahsoka paced away from him while he ruffled through the papers. She was still dressed for work in a dark pantsuit and uncomfortable looking stilettos that always made Obi-Wan wonder how she walked out here.

He called his home an estate, but it was more of a collection of buildings in the middle of the desert. Most of them dome shaped and made of a mixture of earth and concrete. And the little pergola that he’d strung his hammock under was some two hundred feet from the main house with nothing but sandy dirt and sage bushes between.

Obi-Wan ran his forefinger down the column she’d indicated and read through the names.

“Oh.” He skimmed through the short death notice and cleared his throat. “And have you heard from…?”

Ahsoka scoffed and crossed her arms. “All these years and you still can’t say his name?”

He didn’t have an answer for that, so he studied the obituary again instead.

_SHEEV PALPATINE_

_Stage magician Sheev Palpatine passed away peacefully in his sleep on Dec. 11. He was perhaps best known for his elaborate magic shows that were often criticized by his peers as antiquated and, at times, dangerous. One such show that left his assistant permanently maimed all but ruined his reputation in the magic community. Palpatine left behind no family._

Not a particularly flattering obituary, but then Obi-Wan figured the writer was actually glossing over quite a few other atrocities... So he’d call it even. He peered at the small black and white photograph accompanying the paragraph. It had to have been taken at least thirty or forty years ago, long before he’d ever met the man. Palpatine was standing on a stage, performing to a large, faceless crowd, and clad in a tacky magician’s outfit. He held a live rabbit aloft in the air with a wide and calculating smile on his face.

“I heard he fell down an elevator shaft.”

Obi-Wan slowly lifted his eyes from the page. Ahsoka had a good poker face, but she had never fooled him before. He didn’t see any of her tells now.

“What?” she asked defensively, crossing her arms. “I still have some friends in the business. They talk.”

“You’re serious.”

“Would I joke about the cause of death of my nemesis?”

He arched a brow. “Yes.”

She scowled at him and for a second Obi-Wan had a flashback of her sticking her tongue out at him when she was little. She was running away from him in a game of tag, probably not too far away from this very spot. The memory faded and he was hit with such a strong sense of longing for the past.

Ahsoka’s face hardened as if she could see his mental image. She turned and looked out across the desert. The sun was setting, slowly bathing the land in red glow and purple shadows.

“And how do you feel about this news?” he asked cautiously.

“Honestly? Relieved.” She huffed a laugh. “I know he was a person and I shouldn’t say that about his death, but he was an asshole. Shitty magician too.”

“You’ll find no disagreement from me.”

“And no matter how you feel about Anakin—” She paused to kick a rock at him when he flinched at the mention of their brother. “He didn’t deserve to be manipulated by Palpatine. There’s still good in Anakin. Or at least there was.”

“I know,” he said softly.

There’d been good in Anakin from the very first moment Obi-Wan had met him. A streetrat that tried to pickpocket him on the Strip. But Obi-Wan was already an expert at close-up magic himself by that point, and caught the grubby little hands before they even touched his wallet. He’d brought him back to Bail’s club to make sure the boy got a decent meal, and the rest was history.

Ahsoka let out a long-suffering sigh. “I need a drink.”

Obi-Wan busied himself by rolling up the newspaper and tucking it under his arm. He held his other arm out for her.

“Come on. I’ve still got half a bottle of that bourbon Bail gave me for Christmas last year.”

“The one that came with a certificate of authenticity?”

“Yep.”

She tilted her chin this way and that as she considered.

“Okay, I’m interested.” Ahsoka eyed his arm, still outstretched toward her. “I think you need more help walking than I do, old-timer.”

“That may be true, my dear. But the light is fading and those shoes are making my ankles hurt just looking at them.”

Half her mouth twitched upward. Obi-Wan supposed the idea of him walking in her heels _would_ be comical to her.

“All right,” she sighed dramatically. “But just for you.”

Ahsoka took his arm and slotted her hand in the crook of his elbow as they stepped out from under the pergola. Obi-Wan was glad she was no longer facing him because he was sure there was a silly grin on his face. He had a feeling she knew anyway.

* * *

He woke up with the sun the next morning like he always did. It’d been a while since he’d drank that much, and he was remembering just why that was as he did his morning tai chi. One hand over the other, ground the feet into the earth, release what you cannot control.

His head hurt. His back hurt. Everything hurt. That was something he couldn’t control but couldn’t release either.

There was a small hill behind the main house that he brought his yoga mat out to each morning to go through his forms. From here he could see his whole property and miles beyond it. The packed earth domes he spent years designing and building with help from Ahsoka and… Well, with help from his family and friends. The endless field of shrubs and cacti hiding all sorts of critters, the hazy mountains in the not-so-far distance…

And the plume of dust being stirred up as a vehicle drove along his driveway.

He sighed and settled down on the mat to watch as the dust slowly revealed a black SUV. It approached his estate and crawled to a stop next to Ahsoka’s sleek sports car in front of the outbuilding he used as a garage. The men inside knew better than to slam their doors, but the soft thumps as they exited the car still reverberated through the morning stillness.

Cody and Rex were dressed casually, loose pants that wouldn’t stick to skin once the desert sun rose to its zenith and short sleeve shirts with various faded logos. Obi-Wan was amused to recognize the faint outline of their old stage show’s branding on Rex’s threadbare t-shirt. Ahsoka’s deep blue gown still held a modicum of pigment as the light caught it.

“Mornin’,” Cody greeted when they’d crested the small hill.

Obi-Wan nodded sagely. “It is that indeed.”

Rex snorted. “So I’m guessing you got each other drunk and she passed out in the guest hut?”

“More or less,” Obi-Wan answered with a sigh. Now that he was speaking and having to use his brain, the hangover was making itself known.

“Figured,” Cody grunted. He held up a plastic bag Obi-Wan only just now noticed. “We brought breakfast.”

“I hope there’s bacon in there.” Obi-Wan began to stand up from his cross-legged pose and tried not to let his discomfort in the action show on his face. He must have failed in that hope though because a rough hand entered his field of vision as he was still working up the momentum to move. He grasped it gratefully and Cody hauled him up. “Thank you.”

“Of course there’s bacon.” Rex picked up Obi-Wan’s yoga mat and shook out the dirt as they made their way down the hill. “I know how to handle a hungover Ahsoka.”

“I’ll bet you do,” Cody mumbled under his breath. Rex jabbed him in the ribs and Obi-Wan kindly pretended not to notice the whole exchange.

“Come on, she’s probably awake by now.”

And indeed, when they stooped through the low doorway of the main house, they heard the thuds and clangs of someone rustling about in the kitchen.

“Obi-Wan, where’s your coffee?” Ahsoka called from her position on the countertop searching through one of the upper shelves. She was wearing just the sweatshirt she’d stolen from him last night and her knickers, which were on full display as she rummaged through his dry goods. If Obi-Wan wasn’t sure that Cody and Rex had seen her in far less, he might’ve been embarrassed for his little sister.

“There’s a lovely new blend of oolong on the shelf to your left.”

Her fake gagging sounds were cut off with a squeal as Rex hugged her from behind and swung her off the counter. Cody made his own gagging sounds and began unpacking the food. When Rex had safely deposited her on her feet, Cody handed her a disposable cup from the drink carrier he had unpacked.

“Oh, thank god.” She inhaled deeply from the paper cup and smiled blissfully with her eyes pressed shut.

Obi-Wan lowered himself into the plush armchair in the living area. Cody dropped a clamshell container in his lap and settled onto the couch with his own.

Last night Ahsoka had insisted there was nothing going on between she and Rex, and Obi-Wan had mostly believed her. But it was hard to ignore the casual intimacy they shared or the way they seemed to communicate without words. Rex grabbed the last two containers, then sat on the couch next to his brother and automatically spread his legs so that Ahsoka could sit on the floor between them. She reached blindly behind her until Rex placed the box in her waiting hands.

“Thanks for getting breakfast, Cody,” she said while stuffing a whole strip of bacon into her mouth.

Cody grunted in response.

“You’re not still mad about that memo I sent—”

“You’re taking away my breakroom!”

“Nooo,” Ahsoka countered, oblivious to the figurative steam coming out of Cody’s ears. “I’m centralizing the breakrooms. So now the whole first floor of the west tower will share one much larger breakroom. And there will be hot food from the kitchen twenty-four-seven.”

“ _Leftovers_ ,” he spat.

“ _Not_ leftovers. Food prepared especially for staff. Only made possible in the budget because of the savings from _centralizing_ the breakrooms.”

Cody scoffed but didn’t have an answer ready in the face of well thought out logic.

“He’s mad because she won’t let him keep the dart board,” Rex helpfully supplied to Obi-Wan.

“It’s a stress reliever!”

“It’s a workplace injury lawsuit waiting to happen, is what it is.”

Obi-Wan rolled his eyes. “Do I need to reinstate the no-talking-about-work rule?”

Cody and Rex’s “Yes!” nearly drowned out Ahsoka’s “No!”

Ahsoka always had a problem separating work from personal. She took the work home with her and took home to work. It was no wonder then that she didn’t have a home of her own still. She lived in the hotels she managed and that was the way she liked it. Close to the action, ready at a moment’s notice.

“So you’ve accepted the General Manager position then?” Obi-Wan asked her with feigned nonchalance.

He knew she hadn’t. Bail came out to see him just last week to bemoan that all Ahsoka wanted to do was jet around to all his properties and _fix_ things but there was nothing left to fix. All the fires had already been put out—by her. She’d personally overseen the founding of no less than a dozen properties from blueprints to launch day, installing loyal and hardworking staff at each that could do the job once she was gone. Obi-Wan had thought she’d settle down for good in at least one of the locations. Anything to get away from her past and, some small part of him thought, get away from the brothers who’d let her down.

But without fail, she moved on. Another city, another hotel, another life. Periodically stopping back at the flagship property in Las Vegas to rearrange staff breakrooms and deliver newspapers to a hermit in the desert.

Bail was done expanding for now though. There were no new launches on the horizon and no fires to put out. What Bail needed now was someone who could handle his biggest hotel and the casino with the most cashflow, and that someone was invariably Ahsoka.

“On second thought, that sounds like a good rule,” she ground out, stabbing her plastic fork into the Styrofoam to pierce her waffle.

Obi-Wan noticed both Rex and Cody’s desolate faces. For all Cody’s bluster about retaining autonomy in the casino, Obi-Wan knew he considered Ahsoka family. He also knew that the bluster was mostly just that—for show, and that he did appreciate her input.

And Rex… Well, if Rex wasn’t in love with her, Obi-Wan didn’t know what to believe.

“Would it really be so bad, ‘Soka?” Rex asked her now. Obi-Wan had a feeling that if it was anyone else asking the question she’d put up another wall to hide behind, but she had to have heard the quiet hope in his voice along with the rest of them.

Ahsoka stared at her food and seemingly unconsciously reached a hand around Rex’s calf to pull him closer. “No, it wouldn’t be bad,” she agreed softly. “I just don’t know if I’m ready.”

Ahsoka was Bail’s first employee when he set out to build a casino on the Strip some fifteen years ago. She’d been there for it all, learning the ropes of the hospitality industry with nothing but a besmirched name and an empty checking account to tie her to their past. Obi-Wan knew that Bail had offered her a full partnership in the business several times through the years, all with the same response. The GM position was supposed to be an olive branch. Recognition of her worth while still allowing her to manage details of a property.

Rex looked away, hiding his face from the others as Cody and Obi-Wan shared a look. They both knew that when Ahsoka said she wasn’t ready to stay in Vegas long-term, what Rex heard was that she wasn’t ready to be open with him about her feelings. Or maybe that there weren’t any feelings to begin with.

Breakfast wrapped up soon after and his guests began to talk of returning to the city.

“You’re welcome to stay longer. I know it’s a long way to drive.”

Cody began collecting everyone’s trash in the same plastic bag he'd brought it in. “Nah, another time, Obi-Wan. I’ve got second shift today, covering for Wolffe.”

“Same for me.” Rex cleared his throat. “Well, not covering for Wolffe. But I told my staff I’d be in by noon at the latest.”

“And I’ve got to get back too. I need to teleconference with the Zurich property before it gets too late in the day for them.” Ahsoka rolled her eyes and hopped up from the floor using Rex’s knee as support. “Practically their entire back office is about to go on leave for Christmas.”

Obi-Wan stopped himself from asking if she had any Christmas plans of her own. “Of course, of course. Well, stop by any time.”

Cody shot him an apologetic smile which Obi-Wan tried to return reassuringly. It was fine. They never did anything big for the holidays these days anyway. Most years, when Cody happened to be off work sometime around Christmas, he’d make the trip out here and they’d drink a beer under the stars and reminisce about how it used to be.

If the sad downturn to Cody’s expression was an indication, Obi-Wan had failed to reassure him of anything.

“I think I’ll be off on the twenty-seventh, maybe we can do something then,” Cody offered.

“That would be nice.” He appreciated the effort. And the sacrifice it was to spend time with an old coot like himself, doing nothing but live in the past. “But there’s no pressure, Cody.”

“I’m gonna go get my stuff from the guest hut.” Ahsoka hooked a thumb over her shoulder. The shoulder that was still wearing his sweatshirt that she stole from him every time she slept here.

“The dresser in that room still has some leggings you left here last time, if you’re really not going to wear yesterday’s clothes to drive back.”

She gasped excitedly and almost bowled him over as she hugged him. “Thanks, big brother. See you later!” With a peck on his cheek that left his whiskers tingling, she was out of his arms and through the door in a flash.

“You got your suit to change into at the hotel?” Cody asked Rex.

“Yup, already in her car,” he answered, then turned to Obi-Wan. “So I’ll head out too before she leaves without me. Good to see you, man. We should do this again some time.”

Obi-Wan nodded, trying not to take the vagueness too personally. “You’re always welcome here, Rex. And Merry Christmas if I don’t see you before then.”

Cody gave him a one-armed hug once Rex had left, thumping him on the back a little harder than was probably good for his spinal health.

“It won’t always be like this, buddy,” Cody told him. “This is already miles better than how she was with you a few years ago.”

“I know.”

“And hey,” he continued as he held Obi-Wan’s shoulder and shook it for emphasis. “If she takes the GM job, she’ll be in town at least fifty percent more.”

Obi-Wan snorted, and Cody looked pleased when he stepped back.

“My condolences for your dart board.”

“Nah, if that’s the price I have to pay to get her around more and my sad sack brother that much closer to making a move… Well, I won’t be _glad_ , but I’ll take one for the team.”

“A noble sacrifice.”

Cody finally cracked a real smile. “Okay, Kenobi, I really do have to go now. But I’m serious about the twenty-seventh. Maybe earlier if I can swing it, but I’ll let you know. Maybe I’ll even convince Rex to come along.”

“I look forward to it.”

Cody gave one final wave as he got into his SUV then followed behind Ahsoka as they backed out and away from the buildings.

Obi-Wan watched until both cars had driven all the way down his driveway and merged onto the main road, their trails of dust gently settling back over the ground like it had never been disturbed in the first place. Then he turned and headed inside alone.


	3. Rex

“ _Reservations head_.”

Rex’s fingers paused over his keyboard as he glanced at his radio in its charging port tucked into a corner on his desk. He sighed and reached for it.

He depressed the transmit button. “Go for reservations head.”

“ _Channel twenty-one_.”

Goddamnit.

The staff at the Organa Hotel and Casino had an unofficial code for how big a problem was. The lower radio channels were for normal, everyday chatter. Channel one was home, channels two through twelve were each designated for a different department—housekeeping, casino, main kitchen, etcetera and so on.

Channel thirteen wasn’t used at all because the hospitality industry was full of superstitious bastards in general but add gambling into the mix and it was a wonder they actually got things done with how many curses they were sidestepping on a daily basis.

Channels fourteen through seventeen were for management. Only the special radios could get the upper frequencies and a lot of speculation went on in the lower ranks about what was said on those channels. Mostly it was boring things like scheduling the weekly standups or informing the heads of department about maintenance issues in common areas. It was hardly ever anything that was actually juicy, much to his subordinates’ dismay whenever they begged him for details.

But eighteen and above were channels only the employees who’d been issued radios in the first year of the hotel being open had access to. Back then they’d had twenty-two channel radios and only a handful were still in circulation. Rex took special care of his gear and he was proud to say his twenty-two was still in perfect condition. They don’t make ‘em like they used to. Those of the old timers that were left used the off-limit channels sparingly and deliberately.

Rex switched the manual dial to twenty-one and depressed the transmitter again. “What is it, Cody,” he said flatly. He didn’t have time for whatever this emergency was, and he could already feel the headache building behind his eyes.

A pause, and Rex could just imagine Cody’s raised eyebrow at his tone. “ _Well hello to you too, brother_.”

“I’ve got four VIPs checking in today. Say whatever you’re gonna say and let me get back to work.”

“ _Okay, okay_ …” Cody trailed off for long enough that the static cut to silence for a second before picking back up. That meant that he was probably in his office away from the bullpen of security staff monitoring the casino floor, a rare enough occurrence that Rex should’ve been worried by that alone. A rush of static through the receiver indicated that Cody was sighing on the other end.

“ _He picked a shitty day to show up, but Target One is here_.”

Fuck.

“Making a scene?”

“ _Not yet. But he’s partaking in the devil’s water, so it’s only a matter of time, I’m sure_.”

“Hold.”

“ _Copy_.”

Rex quickly opened the calendar on his computer and tabbed through until he found the agenda he was looking for. It was ten in the morning which meant she had an hour window between meetings. Not ideal but it’d have to work. They were lucky she was in town at all.

“Coordinates?”

“ _Blackjack tables. Dealer Kilo Juliet_.”

Now Rex got the joke of talking on channel twenty-one. Who knew pit bosses had senses of humor?

“Let me know if he moves.”

“ _Copy. You want security with you_?”

“Keep a couple in the shadows. I don’t want this to be a spectacle if I can help it.”

“ _Copy, over_.”

Rex swung his blazer over his shoulders one-handed and shrugged into it. “And thanks, brother.”

“ _Happy hunting. Over and out_.”

He tried her company cell first, no need to worry her with a personal call during a workday. It was being forwarded to her assistant who kindly pointed him in the right direction.

The Organa had dozens of ballrooms and conference rooms, but only two on the top level of the main tower: Saguaro and Primrose. When her assistant had told him she was on this level Rex expected her to be walking through an event prep, but as he stepped off the express elevator and into the foyer between the two ballrooms, it was quiet. He made his way into Saguaro and paused at the entrance when he saw her.

Her back was to him but he knew that she saw him in the reflection of the floor to ceiling window. She was sitting cross-legged on the floor in the center of the wall of windows, palms face down on the knees of her all-white pantsuit. She might’ve been trying to meditate originally but now was obviously just staring out the window. Or maybe that was a meditation of itself—Rex was never really sure what the rules were. He crossed the room to her, steps measured but not leisurely, despite how the echoing of his dress shoes on the polished floors made him want to slow down and soften the sharp noise. Ahsoka stood gracefully when he neared, picking up a cloth table napkin that she’d been sitting on in the same motion.

“He’s here?” she asked calmly, still watching the horizon through the glass.

Rex didn’t bother to wonder how she knew. The disaster trio, as Cody called them both behind their backs and to their faces, always just seemed to _know_. Even when they shouldn’t. Even when they didn’t understand it themselves.

“At the blackjack tables.” He hesitated to tell her about the drinking. But a miniscule twitch of her jaw told him she already knew there was a problem brewing.

Ahsoka sighed and swept her gaze over the horizon one last time. _Ground yourself in the natural world_ , she’d told him so many times before.

“All right. Let’s go.”

“And that’s another blackjack, sir.”

If the situation wasn’t so serious, Rex would’ve laughed at Kanan Jarrus’s monotone pronouncement as he pushed a pile of chips towards the only man at the table with him. As it was, Rex glanced at Ahsoka striding beside him and noted her clenched jaw. Best not to laugh then. Kanan’s eyes widened at their arrival.

“Go take your fifteen, Kanan,” Ahsoka said, surprising the dealer even further that she knew his name.

“Yes, ma’am.” He quickly locked up the loose chips and punched out his timecard on the security console beneath the table’s lip.

Rex planted his feet a couple yards behind the occupied chair and crossed his arms. It’d been a long time since his days as a security guard at Organa’s club, but he’d heard clotheslining a perp was like riding a bicycle.

Ahsoka sat down in the next seat over. “Counting cards?”

“Aw, come on, Snips! You know I don’t need to do that to win!”

If Rex hadn’t known Anakin Skywalker for the majority of his life, he wouldn’t have noticed the telltale signs he was drunk. He didn’t slur or make wild movements like other drunks. But there was that note of cockiness in his voice. The self-assured certainty that he could do anything he wanted.

“I know you don’t, Anakin. Which is why it’s all the more surprising.”

Rex made eye contact with the two security guards lurking by the back wall. He nodded minutely to them and tapped his earpiece to indicate that he’d already switched to the casino security channel. Cody responded to the cue the next second.

“ _We’ve got her covered. Stop being such a worrier_.”

He rolled his eyes.

“ _Yeah, yeah, I know. Says the guy watching from a security camera_.”

“Where are you staying, Anakin?” Ahsoka asked.

“I’m staying with you! I won’t leave you again, Snips!”

Rex couldn’t see Ahsoka’s face but he felt her reluctance. He almost felt bad for Anakin in that moment.

“You need to go home, Anakin.”

“But I am home. Here, with you. And Rex and Cody and Bail and whoever else you guys have hired from the old days.”

“And Obi-Wan? What about him, is he home too?”

A long silence followed. Anakin said quietly, “You know it can’t be like before.”

“Why not, hmm? Because you got in a fight? Because you both said some things you regret?”

“It wasn’t just… Snips, you know it’s more.”

“I don’t think I do actually. It’s been fifteen fucking years and I’m tired, Anakin. I’m tired of being in the middle of all this and I’m tired of taking care of you both.”

Rex stared at the back of Ahsoka’s head. He’d never heard her speak so bluntly about the situation with her brothers.

“I’m sorry.” Anakin’s voice was small. Nothing like the young man who awed a crowd of strangers as he performed without fear.

Ahsoka sighed and Rex felt her exhaustion in his own bones. “I can’t take your apologies anymore, Anakin. I can’t keep doing it. As long as you keep doing the same things you’ve been doing… I just can’t.”

“But that’s the thing! That’s what I came here to tell you. It’s over, he’s gone. _Finito_. Not coming back. De-ceased.”

Ahsoka exhaled evenly. Her voice, when she spoke, held disappointment. “I know.”

“Don’t you get it then? I’m free!”

Anakin didn’t pick up on Ahsoka’s mood. He was exuberant, especially for a man talking about his dead mentor. Rex didn’t like Palpatine either, but he wasn’t about to start dancing on graves.

“You’ve always been free, Anakin,” she said sadly.

“You don’t understand.” Anakin was getting frustrated. Rex glanced at the security camera trained on their table again. “He— He was evil! And manipulative and dangerous.”

“Yes,” Ahsoka agreed solemnly.

“I didn’t want to work with him, but I couldn’t get out of the contract… And anyways, I couldn’t just go out on my own. I’m not good enough for that.”

Ahsoka’s head tilted as if she was going to say something, but she didn’t open her mouth.

“But now that he’s gone, I can do whatever I want. I can leave magic behind and do something that actually makes me happy.”

“Magic doesn’t make you happy?”

“No,” Anakin said with a vehement shake of his shaggy head. “It’s a lie. I lie to people and they laugh and cheer and ask for more. It’s always been a lie.”

“Always?”

Rex wanted to protect her from whatever her brother was going to say next because he knew it wouldn’t be anything good. For all their troubles as a family, they had good times too. Being the youngest of the trio, Ahsoka probably still had idealized memories of the high points.

“Yeah,” Anakin laughed. “I mean, what we did, it wasn’t _noble_ or _good_. It was just a scam, the whole thing.”

A long moment passed where Anakin took another drink of dark liquid from the tumbler in his hand and Ahsoka stared straight ahead.

“Ah,” she said finally. “Then I think we’re done here.”

She pushed back the chair she was sat in and made to stand up, but Anakin reached a hand out to her shoulder to stop her.

Rex had had enough. He stepped forward to interfere but Ahsoka was quicker. In the blink of an eye, she’d bent Anakin’s arm around and behind his back, pressing him into the felt of the table. Out of the corner of his eye Rex saw the two security guards start toward their table but he flashed the stand down hand signal to them and they backed away again.

“Snips—” Anakin grunted in mild discomfort. Rex assumed he was too drunk to feel pain at this point. “Snips, what are you—"

“Don’t come back here,” she snarled. She’d told him that before. But something about today made it sound more raw.

“Snips, I’m sorry—!”

She shoved him frustratedly into the table again, then let go completely. “And stop calling me Snips.”

Rex nodded to the security guards and they were at his side in seconds. “Get him to a cab, one of our guys. Tell them to take him wherever he wants to go on the Organa’s tab.”

“Yes, sir,” one of them responded. Rex turned away from the table, trusting them to finish this without fanfare. Cody would let him know if there were any other problems.

He found Ahsoka a few paces away waiting for him. Her mask was back in place, but Rex could see it starting to crack. They walked side by side to the elevator bank leading to the guest rooms in the main tower, Rex keeping a professional distance from her when all he really wanted to do was hold her close and protect her from everything in the world that wanted to hurt her.

An empty elevator car was waiting for them and Rex quickly punched his employee card in the slot and then hit the button to the tenth floor where her room was. High enough to see the mountains in the distance but still close enough to the ground levels to be of use in an emergency. Once the doors had shut, she turned so she could see the city shrinking below them through the back wall of the car made entirely of glass. While Ahsoka stared blankly at the bright colors of the Strip floating downward, Rex looked at her. He knew as well as she did that in the Organa there was always someone else watching, so he said nothing.

A soft chime signaled they’d arrived at her floor. Rex kept expecting her to assure him that she was all right and dismiss him, but she just strode down the hall to the far end of the floor. She handed him her card when they got to her door. Rex took it when he saw how badly her hands were shaking.

As soon as the door swung shut behind them, she collapsed to her knees.

“Hey, hey now. It’s okay,” he soothed. He knelt beside her and wrapped her in his arms like he’d wanted to do ever since Cody radioed him. Ahsoka leaned into his hold and buried her face in the crook of his neck. Her breaths were coming faster and shallower with each gasping inhale. He positioned her arms around his neck and then lifted her up from the floor with a hand under her knees and the other behind her back. She kicked off her heels as he walked her into the bedroom.

It’d been a while since he’d been in Ahsoka’s hotel room. She used to keep all of her possessions with her when she traveled in one or two suitcases, going from country to country and hotel to hotel. But she’d been slowing down in recent years. Instead of going straight to the next property, she’d stay in Vegas for a few days or a few weeks. He didn’t think she even realized it at first.

She’d been here for six months now with no mention of a next assignment and Rex was starting to get hopeful. Which made him nervous.

“Sorry it’s a mess,” she murmured into his neck as he slowly lowered her down onto the unmade bed.

Rex chuckled, “I’d be worried if it wasn’t.”

Stupid.

He never had housekeeping clean the room while she was staying here, trusting her to keep her own space or ask for help if she needed it. If her room was tidy, which it never was when she was staying there, that meant she was either on her way out the door or already gone.

He didn’t mean to say that out loud to her though.

Rex untucked her arms from around his shoulders and stood up. She caught his hand before he could take a step away.

“Can you stay for a bit?”

He pictured the reservation grid still open on his laptop with the room blocks for the week that needed to be logged into the housing system.

“Yeah, of course.”

Rex slipped off his own shoes and hung his blazer on the back of a chair, then slid into the bed next to her and pulled the fluffy white comforter over them. Ahsoka immediately snuggled into his chest again.

“Thank you,” she whispered.

He pressed a kiss to her hair. “Always.”


	4. Ahsoka

She woke up to the sun hitting her face from the wrong direction. Ahsoka had the blinds in her room at the Organa programmed to open twenty minutes to sunrise, when she could look out the solid wall of windows while still lying in bed and see the first rays of light hit the mountains to the west. She’d watch as they slowly changed from purple to reds and greens as the soil and trees came to life each morning.

This morning she was on the wrong side of mountains and facing the wrong cardinal direction. The windows in Obi-Wan’s guest hut faced east instead of west, and the direct power of the sunrise woke her without remorse.

She groaned and rolled over, burying her head underneath his lumpy pillow. But it was no use. It was too goddamn bright and just _off_. She must be going soft if she was thrown off by the sun being in a different place in the sky. She used to live with near constant jetlag.

She thumped her head on the pillow. She was awake, like it or not.

Ahsoka rolled out of his too-low-to-the-ground bed and stared with disdain at her tailored pantsuit she’d thrown haphazardly on a chair in the corner of the room last night. There was no way she was putting that back on so Obi-Wan better be ready to surrender some more clothes to her when it came time for her to leave.

Obi-Wan’s mud hut was not as simplistic as it looked—and trust her, she knew. She’d helped design and build the whole sprawling compound. The bathroom was a smaller circular room attached to the guest hut, and it was clean and modern just like the rest of the rooms. Each structure had thermal heating wired throughout the floors and the foot-and-a-half thick packed earth walls were just about the most efficient insulation you could have.

All this to say she was perfectly comfortable without pants on indoors.

Outside was a different story. December in the mid-elevation desert was not the same as December on the Strip. Her whole body shivered as soon as she closed the dome’s door behind her.

But that was fine too. Living a life on the move meant being uncomfortable a lot of the time. You either got used to it, or you lived unhappily.

Ahsoka gingerly padded across the bare dirt next to Obi-Wan’s main house, winding her way through the brush and tumbleweeds caught between the buildings until she got to the large Joshua tree at the far edge of the main clearing.

Obi-Wan had won this land in a game of cards long before she’d met him. Every time he told the story it was a new and outlandish opponent that he bested and wilder descriptions of the sense of cosmic rightness that guided him through his plays to victory. They used to come out here between gigs and pitch tents, living off the grid for weeks at a time like true nomads.

Ahsoka loved it. She loved the dirt and roughness of the land. She loved the scorpions that glowed at night when she shined a blacklight on them. She loved the open air and miles of untouched land.

But most of all she loved the Joshua tree they camped near and the birds that came to perch in it.

Ahsoka became something of an expert on the birds of the desert. One Great Horned Owl in particular had been coming to the tree for as long as she could remember. Even when she went months without visiting, without fail Morai would be there waiting for her when she returned.

“Hello, old friend.”

Up in the sparse branches, two intelligent eyes blinked. Morai hooted back at her, low and soft, then spread her wings and glided lazily down to rest on Ahsoka’s outstretched arm.

Ahsoka petted her head gently. The morning glow lit the owl’s feathers, showing gleams of gold in her brown coat.

“How’s it going, girl?”

When she’d first been more or less adopted by Obi-Wan and Anakin and they started coming out here, Ahsoka had thought she could speak to the animals she came across. She’d tell them about her day or show them a new gymnastics trick she’d taught herself. She felt like she could understand their chirps and head nods. And maybe she did.

Maybe it was some power she’d lost along with adolescence.

Morai nuzzled her hand and cooed.

“I know. I’m sorry I don’t visit as much as I should. But your neighbor is a bit of an idiot sometimes.”

The owl hooted again and flapped her wings. She took off and soared high into the sky while Ahsoka watched her go, wishing she could join. Morai called out once more before heading in the direction of the road, where Ahsoka watched as a black SUV turned off onto the long dirt driveway. She sighed fondly. No matter how hard she tried sometimes, she could never lose the people—or birds—that cared enough to keep coming back to find her.

* * *

“So I hear Skywalker made a visit to the casino this morning.”

Ahsoka paused with a bite of the fancy tuna they were taste-testing halfway to her mouth. To say that Bail Organa was not a fan of Anakin was an understatement.

“Um, yes,” she said slowly. “But it was handled.”

“Good.” Bail took another bite of his own tuna steak. “I hope he didn’t upset you.”

She thought back to crying in Rex’s arms and begging him to slack off the rest of the workday to hang out in bed with her.

“No, he didn’t upset me.”

“Good,” he said again. She knew he didn’t believe her. He’d probably already seen the security footage.

But the first rule Bail Organa had ever taught her was to be strong, no matter what. This was a tough business. Even tougher for a woman, and a woman of color no less, to be in management. You either succeeded or failed, and all of your actions led to one of those outcomes.

Bail studied the dish in front of him that was identical to her own. “I think the sauce might be a tad too complex on this dish. It’s overpowering the tuna. Hiding the quality and texture. What do you think, Ahsoka?”

Truthfully, she didn’t care for tuna. Or most fish, really. But she’d trained herself to eat all kinds of fancy food she wouldn’t normally eat, along with the proper way to talk about them and how to use all the pointless silverware that went with them. She took another bite to gather her thoughts.

“I agree that it’s complex, but I think it adds a flavor that the dish needs.”

“How so?”

“Well, it goes with the side of roasted vegetables nicely. And adds something unique of its own, giving the whole meal a cohesive string to tie it together.”

Bail hummed thoughtfully. “I agree.”

Ahsoka set down her silverware and took a deep breath.

“I’d like to talk about the General Manager position.”

He didn't look up from his plate. “I thought you might.”

People said she and her brothers were psychic, but Bail Organa was the real magician. He turned nothing into a sprawling empire and he almost always knew what she was thinking.

“Why do you want me to take it?” she asked bluntly.

For the first time in recent memory, Bail looked confused. He frowned and set down his own fork.

“Have I not told you why?”

He had, in many small words throughout the years. Ahsoka knew he valued her contributions.

“I guess what I mean is, why do you _care_ so much if I take the job or not?”

“Because you are good at your job,” he stated as if it was obvious. “And I want you to focus on the Organa to help it grow and flourish, just as I would like you to do so alongside it.”

“You think the Organa is performing poorly? And me?”

Bail sighed and abandoned his meal to face her fully.

“Ahsoka, the Organa is the jewel of the company. One of the highest earners on the Las Vegas Strip for its rating. And you helped build it along with every other property we manage. Without you, there would be no Organa or Organa Industries.” He took her hands in his own and smiled sadly. “I want you to have business cards that finally match your value. I want to see you take the company to new heights by grounding yourself in the long-term operation of a property that will challenge you. You’ve built these new hotels so well, learning and growing as you worked, I want you to apply that same experience to something bigger and closer to your heart. I know you love the Organa as much as I do. Maybe even more.” He chuckled and squeezed her hands. “But what I want most of all is for you to be happy and fulfilled in your job. Over the years I’ve seen you lose that spark in your eyes and I fear that one day you’ll wake up and realize you hate your job.”

“I could never hate my job,” she said a little hoarsely. She’d cried in front of her boss more times than she could count but this time felt more momentous. “Well, most days I don’t hate it,” Ahsoka amended, thinking about some of the reasons she’d cried.

Bail laughed and wiped a stray tear from her cheek. “I would never force you to take a position you don’t truly want.”

“But…” Ahsoka prodded wryly.

“ _But_ as your boss,” he said with an answering grin. “I think this is the logical next step for your career. And as your _friend_ , I think this is what you need.”

“I’ll think about it.”

He gave her a look.

“I’ll think about it _seriously_.”

“Thank you.” He smiled at her again before patting her hands one last time and standing up. “Now, I need to go talk through these menu additions with Chef.”

“I can—” she began, standing up herself.

“No, no. I’m giving you the night off. Go rest, enjoy yourself. You’ve had an eventful few days.”

“You’ve been talking with Obi-Wan again, haven’t you.”

Bail smiled enigmatically. “Perhaps. Now please, go. It’s Christmas Eve Eve. Go and do whatever the kids are doing to celebrate these days.”

Ahsoka raised an eyebrow. “Christmas Eve _Eve_ is not a holiday the kids celebrate.”

He tapped his chin thoughtfully then declared, “It is now. I decree it.”

“You can’t just decree a holiday, Bail.”

“Sure I can. I just did!”

“All right, all right. I’ll take the night off, I promise.” She shook her head in exasperation. If this would get her off the hook with him, she’d go along with his little scheme.

“Good! _In fact_ , take the whole Christmas holiday off,” he exclaimed like a mad man. He was on a power trip. “That’s a novel idea now, isn’t it… Yes, I’ve just decided. I don’t want to see any emails from you until at least December twenty-seventh.”

Ahsoka gaped at him. “Just a minute now, buddy. That’s not fair, I can’t just be off email for three whole days!”

“Yes you can. I’ve just decreed it! In fact…” He pulled out his phone and tapped away at it for a few seconds. “There. I’ve informed both of our assistants. You are not to be contacted until December twenty-eight.”

“Twenty- _eight_?!”

“Let’s call it a mandatory usage of some of those vacation days you let expire every year.”

The way she saw it, Ahsoka had two options. She could fight him on this, remind him of all the deals and paperwork that were due by the end of the year. He might cave eventually once he regained a bit of sanity.

Or…

Or she could accept this for what it was: a gift from a friend. If she really was going to consider taking the GM position, she couldn’t keep going at the pace she’d become accustomed to. She needed balance. And not the knife’s edge kind she usually walked.

“All right,” she finally relented. “But this is highly unusual. Even for you.”

Bail waited patiently while she gathered her laptop bag and then shooed her out of the executive dining room of the restaurant. “Have fun!” he called as he shut the door behind her.

She wandered out of the primary restaurant and through the main level of the hotel. What did a person _do_ on a mandatory vacation from work over Christmas? Sure, she was a fan of the movies and the lights, and even hot cocoa when the situation called for it. But those were passive activities that didn’t require whole days away from the office. It’d been sixteen years since she’d actually _celebrated_ Christmas.

And even that was just camping out in the desert with her brothers and some of the crew. They’d pile blankets and sleeping mats on the ground to block out the chill and sit around the fire all night telling stories or singing songs. Anakin would string up Christmas lights around their tents and plug them into a solar-powered generator that only stored enough juice for a couple hours of light each night. That last year before everything went to shit, they’d driven out to Obi-Wan’s land straight from their annual Christmas Eve show and had a feast of whatever leftovers the club’s kitchen had piled into to-go boxes for them. They were still halfway through the build on the main dome by then. She remembered being sandwiched between Rex and Cody as they sat on cheap camp chairs around the fire, laughing so hard their stomachs hurt.

The next Christmas she spent alone.

And by the next Christmas after that she was already working on the hotel, coordinating with developers and builders as they moved closer and closer to the grand opening. She threw herself into work and hadn’t slowed down since.

Which meant that she had no Christmas plans this year. And no one to share them with even if she did. Ahsoka knew Obi-Wan was as bad as she was about the holidays. There were no icicle lights strung up on his mud huts this time of year, which suited them both.

And Anakin… She sometimes got a call from him on Christmas, when he was sober enough to remember what day it was. She usually hung up before he got to his heartfelt apology that always included a heavy dash of blaming all his problems on everyone else in his life but himself. Ahsoka wondered if she’d get a call like that this year. _I’m sorry I came to your hotel drunk off my ass, but it’s all Obi-Wan’s fault, really!_ Maybe she’d do herself a favor and just not pick up.

She meandered through the main level of the Organa and absently admired the wintry decorations that still had a distinct flair of Vegas. The palm trees with lights strung up on them, the glittery gold and silver tassel that hung from the banisters, the jaunty Santa hats on all the sculptures.

It’s not like she had a group of girlfriends to call to hang out at a moment’s notice. All of her friends were, well, here. Or they would be if it wasn’t nine pm on Christmas Eve Eve.

She knew Cody sometimes did double shifts at the casino but she was pretty sure he was still mad at her about the whole breakroom situation. She was friendly with the head meeting planner, but there were no big events happening at the hotel today so she’d probably already gone home.

It seemed her feet knew where her mind was leading her to before she did. She stopped in front of the main check-in counter in the lobby.

“Good evening, Miss Tano,” the young woman manning the computer closest to her said.

“Hello, Sabine,” she replied, glancing at the name badge on the woman’s blazer. “Is Rex around?”

“Yes, ma’am. Would you like me to get him?” Sabine reached for a radio covered in gold tinsel that was resting on the desk in front of her.

“No, that’s all right. I’ll just go say hi.” Ahsoka smiled kindly and made her way to the nondescript door off to the side of the check-in counter that led to the registration back offices.

Rex’s department was quiet this time of day. Most of the behind the scenes work got done during regular business hours so it was often just a crew chief back here doing the odd job or two. But they must be out at the desk right now. The motion sensing lights were just switching on as Ahsoka made her way through the short rows of cubicles. Rex’s office was in the back, and sure enough there was light peeking out from under his door.

She felt a little guilty. She’d had her breakdown this morning and monopolized his time until well into the afternoon. He was probably still catching up on all the work she’d distracted him from, and here she was, about to distract him further.

Too late to back out now though. She knocked on the door and waited for his gruff _“Enter”_ before pushing it open.

“’Soka?”

“Hi, Rexter,” she said softly.

“Is there something happening?” he asked, frown marring his face.

“No, nothing like that. I haven’t heard anything else…” from Anakin. She didn’t know if she wanted to either.

Rex nodded succinctly and finally relaxed infinitesimally. “Good.” He rubbed a hand over the back of his neck, one of his nervous tells. “Do you want to sit?”

She smiled and accepted the seat he waved at. “Am I bothering you?”

“Nah. Just looking through this month’s totals for the end-of-year report.”

She nodded. That was her fault too. She’d been the one to initiate the end-of-calendar-year report cycle as well as fiscal quarters. “Sorry for wasting so much of your time today. You’d probably be home already if you hadn’t had to babysit me most of the day.” Ahsoka grinned to let him know she was joking, but he didn’t return it.

“Ahsoka, you didn’t waste my time. I wanted to be there for you,” he said seriously.

“I know.” Even if she had a hard time believing that most of the time. “And thank you. Again.”

Rex finally gave her a genuine smile, albeit a slightly tired one, but a smile all the same. Then he repeated what he’d said to her earlier in the day, right before she cried herself to sleep in his arms.

“Always.”

A moment passed where all they did was smile at each other. Ahsoka had always known there was something special between her and Rex, but it was only in the past few years that she’d really started to think of him as anything other than her best friend. He was always just _there_ for her.

Her Rex.

She still wasn’t entirely sure he felt the same way. He never made any moves or pushed any boundaries. Not that they had many in the first place. But of all the years since the stage show ended, this was the one she’d spent the most time in Vegas for, and thus the most time with Rex. She’d been here a while now with no plans to leave again soon. And if Bail had his way, she wouldn’t be leaving at all.

Oh, no. Would she have to move out of her suitcases and finally get an apartment if she became the GM? She hadn’t paid rent since this hotel was built.

Rex coughed and ran his hand over his buzzed blond hair, bringing her attention back to him. “So are you still working tonight? Busy ruining some other aspect of Cody’s life?”

Ahsoka chuckled. “No, he’s safe for the time being. Bail gave me the _night off_ ,” she said with air quotes. “Actually the whole Christmas holiday off.”

Rex’s eyes widened a fraction. “I see.”

“Yeah, ridiculous. Right?”

He nodded absentmindedly. “Right.”

Ahsoka suddenly questioned her motives in coming here. He probably had plans, or at the very least wanted to go home and rest after the day they’d had. She began to stand up, feeling awkward that she’d just assumed he’d want to hang out with her because she had a free evening for the first time in forever.

“But you probably want to head out soon and rest. Sorry, I wasn’t thinking…”

“’Soka.” She stopped, hovering halfway out of her chair. “Do you want to grab a bite to eat with me?”

“God, yes,” she breathed.

They ended up choosing the bar and grill on the terrace to eat at. One, for the convenience of not having to leave the property and thus have to pay actual money for a meal, and two, because Ahsoka really did love the Organa and all the little sub-environments within it. The terrace overlooked the lights and spectacles of the Strip while being far enough above the chaos to still be semi-quiet.

“Miss Tano! I didn’t realize you’d be joining us tonight!” the head server exclaimed upon seeing them push open the double doors that led to the waitstand.

“Not an official visit, just here for a bit to eat,” she assured him.

“Of course, of course.” He snapped his fingers at a passing server. “Table eight, and bring a heat lamp over, too.”

“Thank you,” Ahsoka said gratefully, only just noticing the bite in the air. Rex must have too. He shrugged off his jacket and draped it over her bare shoulders. She smiled up at him in thanks.

“All set,” the server told them as he began to lead them to the table.

Ahsoka felt Rex’s hand on the small of her back and she shivered. He must have taken that to mean she was still cold, so he pulled her that much closer to him as they walked.

“So what are you going to do with your time off?” Rex asked once they were settled in the low chairs and the waiter had taken their orders. The heat lamp provided a cozy warmth that enveloped the space completely.

She shrugged. “You’re looking at the extent of my plans. Maybe I’ll take a bubble bath in the fancy soaker tub in my room, watch a few different versions of the Grinch, see what he’s getting up to these days.” Her nose scrunched as a thought struck her. “Although, for all that I love this place and trust our housekeeping to give everything a deep clean, bathtubs seem a bit intimate to share germs with who knows how many strangers.”

Rex chuckled, “Good thing no one else has ever used that bathtub then.”

She laughed along with his good mood but didn’t understand his words. “What?”

He froze like he wasn’t sure if he’d just revealed something unintentionally. “I just mean, since no one else has ever stayed in that room. Besides you.”

Ahsoka mentally scrolled through her stays at the Organa. Sure, she always had the same room, but she figured Rex let it out to the main room block when she wasn’t there. Hell, there were stretches during the biggest phases of Organa Industries’ expansion where she didn’t come back to Vegas for a good seven or eight months. Surely he didn’t save that room just for her.

“But…”

He shrugged. “I thought you knew.”

“I just thought you read my agendas that I send before trips,” Ahsoka said, confusion and wonder in her voice. “I didn’t think you kept it reserved just for me.”

“I do read your agendas,” he said softly.

“Oh.”

The maybe-probably-future-GM in her said that he was being wildly inefficient with hotel resources. She knew for a fact there’ve been multiple times throughout the years where the hotel sold out. But the other part of her, the part that was starting to see Obi-Wan’s point that _it’s been right in front of her this whole time_ … well, that part was feeling pretty good.

Rex fidgeted under the weight of her stare. “I just wanted you to have your own space where you felt comfortable. It’s really not a big deal.”

“It _is_ a big deal.” She tucked the lapels of his jacket closer to her chest. “A big deal in a good way.”

She’d seen this look on his face before. Whenever she finished some big achievement or the split second after she hugged him unexpectedly. She’d always assumed he was just happy to be her friend, as she was to be his. But now she knew it meant something else, too.

His eyes crinkled as he smiled, and she saw the faint hints of a blush creep up his neck. Ahsoka tugged her hand out of the end of his jacket’s sleeve and reached across the gap between their chairs. Rex grabbed it reflexively and she smiled back at him.

Maybe sticking around Vegas for the foreseeable future wouldn’t be so bad after all.


	5. Anakin

A pair of eyes was watching him.

Anakin knew this even before he’d fully awoken. But his mind had trouble clearing the fog that clouded his senses and he couldn’t process where the eyes were. Or where he was, for that matter. He took in several deep breaths of dry air, his throat feeling like it was coated in sandpaper, then finally cracked his eyelids open and looked around to try to make sense of his surroundings.

Maybe he was still dreaming. He screwed his eyes shut again and concentrated on breathing. In through his nose and out through his mouth.

He opened one eyelid slowly.

The eyes were right in front of him now, attached to a small brown bird.

He yelped and tried to scramble away from the bird, but he was caught in some kind of net. Actually, he was suspended in the air in the net.

“Fucking—”

He jabbed and pulled at the net until he managed to free one of his legs which promptly unbalanced his center of gravity and sent the whole mess spinning upside down.

A pair of well-worn leather sandals stepped into his field of vision. Anakin strained his neck to lift his head far enough up to see the owner of the sandals.

Obi-Wan Kenobi’s upside-down face stared down at him.

“I see you’ve been reacquainted with Morai.”

The owl hooted from somewhere above him. Anakin heard the rustle of her wings as she flew closer to him, and then talons were digging into the flesh of his calf as she landed on his upturned leg. He inhaled sharply.

“I don’t think she’s a fan,” he said through gritted teeth.

Obi-Wan hummed thoughtfully. “She tends to take cues from her proprietress.”

Anakin made a futile attempt to free his other limbs from his mesh prison, which he now recognized as a hammock. Obi-Wan watched him struggle with a frown that still appeared upside-down to him. It was almost like he was smiling this way.

“Yes, well. When you figure that out, I’ll have tea waiting in the main house.”

Obi-Wan’s sandals turned and walked calmly away from him.

After a frustratingly long amount of twisting and rolling, Anakin finally dropped to the sandy desert floor with a triumphant grunt. He laid there catching his breath and looking up at the bright blue sky between the slats of the wood pergola. Ahsoka’s bird watched him from her perch on one of those beams and tilted her head curiously.

“And what are you supposed to be, the Ghost of Christmas Present?”

She tilted her head the opposite way for a moment, then gave one last hoot before flying off again. He felt like he’d just been judged and had no idea what the verdict was.

Anakin gingerly picked himself up off the ground and dusted the sand from his long-ago-faded jeans. He felt like he’d been hit by a bus. The ground tilted when he was fully upright and he stumbled back to his knees. Once the dirt stopped swirling, he lifted his arms and stared at them.

_“Ah, come on, Cody. Just let me talk to her!”_

He remembered Cody appearing on the casino floor after Rex and Ahsoka had left. The security guards had comically ziptied his hands behind his back then. Well, his _hand_. The plastic bit into his wrists tight enough to sting and it actually would have taken him a bit of effort to get out of it if he’d really tried. He supposed Cody had done it more for the intent behind the gesture than actual restraint. There were still faint red lines around his wrists where the plastic cut into the skin.

_“I think you’ve said enough for one day, Anakin.”_

He’d stopped fighting them after that. Cody was right after all.

Anakin kept picturing Ahsoka as she sat beside him at the blackjack table, her face an emotionless mask.

_“Then I think we’re done here.”_

He felt his heart jump just like it had when she’d said those words to him. Panic. He thought he’d lost his survival instinct a long time ago, but he was wrong.

Because in that moment he realized that he still had something to lose.

“Why did it have to be the goddamn desert,” he grumbled to himself as he slowly stood again and picked his way through the brush to the buildings.

He stood in front of the cluster of domes and wondered just how many Obi-Wan was planning to build out here. Back when they’d been plotting out the home, they had sites cleared for six. Four connected on the main structure and two freestanding. He counted ten now that he could distinguish. The main house, as Obi-Wan had called it, was still the biggest. Its whitewashed walls were tall and imposing, but beautiful at the same time. Anakin pushed open the curved wooden door of the dome and stepped inside.

It wasn’t as dark as he’d thought it’d be. Even when they were building it Anakin had been skeptical about Obi-Wan’s idea for an earth-packed home. But this space was light and airy, yet still cozy. A small kitchen curved against one wall with open shelving above the custom cabinetry and retro-looking appliances. There were two arched doorways on either side of the kitchen he knew led to the two bedrooms, and another one that led to the bathroom. And beneath a curved window, that he remembered framing in himself, was a plush green velvet couch where Obi-Wan now sat drinking a cup of tea and observing him.

“I see you finished the place,” Anakin remarked. “How many domes are there?”

“Fourteen in total plus a few other more traditionally-shaped structures.”

He let out a low whistle. “Wow. Was it hard?”

Obi-Wan nodded. “I had help when I needed it. But it was a good three years of solid work.”

Anakin felt a pang of remorse. He should have been there for that. He was supposed to occupy one of those dome clusters.

“What time is it?” he asked instead.

“Almost sunset. I was beginning to wonder if you’d ever wake up.”

“How did I get here?”

“Well, a disgruntled cab driver interrupted my midday meditation and said you’d insisted he bring you here.”

He did vaguely recall someone dragging him out of a car. “And the hammock?”

“I didn’t want you vomiting in my house.”

“I puked?”

“No, but your face was very pale. I wasn’t taking any chances.”

“Ah.”

“Any more questions?”

“None that I can think of.”

“Good, because I have one of my own.” He set down his teacup on a beautiful live edge wood coffee table in front of the couch. “Why are you in Nevada, Anakin?”

Anakin shrugged and glanced away from Obi-Wan’s intense stare. “I wanted to see Snips.”

“And how did that go for you?”

He scowled. “I can tell from your tone that you already know how it went.”

Obi-Wan scoffed and raised his voice accusingly, “Showing up passed out drunk in the backseat of a cab that came from her hotel _was_ a subtle clue.”

“Here we go…”

“But then getting a call from Cody that you made our little sister deal with you, belligerent and in her place of business— that you made her _cry_!”

The fight drained out of Anakin as quickly as it had come.

“I made her cry?” he asked brokenly.

Obi-Wan stared at him, anger still rolling off him in waves, and searched Anakin’s face. “Not out in the open, but he said Rex had to bring her back to her room to get her to calm down. Rex called him once she was asleep.”

Anakin choked on his own tears as he struggled to breathe. He dropped to the floor.

Anakin had helped build the walls of this house, but he hadn’t been around to see the floors go in. So Obi-Wan ended up going with a wide-planked light wood then, that was interesting. They’d thrown around ideas of tile, easy to clean— or concrete, easy to pour. Was this an engineered hardwood? It was nice, whatever it was, made the room feel homier. It was also warm against his arms and forehead as he knelt against it and deep, wracking sobs shuddered through him.

It was some time before he noticed a hand on his back rubbing lightly back and forth, and Obi-Wan’s soft voice murmuring soothingly.

“There, there. It’s okay. She’ll be okay.”

It should have sounded patronizing. Obi-Wan had stopped being a source of comfort to him a long time ago, or so he thought.

“I came here…” Anakin began with a raw throat. He still pressed his forehead against the warm solidness of the floor. “I came to Vegas to apologize. But I was so nervous.”

Obi-Wan shushed him, “It’s okay, Anakin. I’m sure she’ll forgive you in time.”

He shook his head haltingly. “No, you don’t get it— I came here to see _both_ of you. I… I wanted to say I was sorry.”

“Oh, Anakin...”

“I was selfish and scared. And Palpatine— he took advantage of that. I’m so sorry, Obi-Wan.” He was overcome with sobs again. Obi-Wan gently prodded his shoulders and lifted his torso off the floor, but Anakin kept his eyes downcast and continued his confession. “I let him manipulate me! I let our family implode... I never wanted to hurt anyone, but that’s exactly what happened. I’m sorry.”

He finally raised his eyes to look at Obi-Wan’s face. To his surprise, Obi-Wan was smiling at him. Tear were shining on his cheeks, but he was smiling as the rivulets ran down his face and into his beard.

Obi-Wan wrapped his arms around Anakin and crushed him in a hug.

“I’ve waited fifteen years to hear you say that,” he whispered.

* * *

_Christmas Eve_

“Are you sure you don’t want me to drive?”

“I may not have driven in the city lately, Anakin, but at least I have two hands to reach the gear shift and steering wheel at the same time.”

“Hey! I can drive just fine, thank you very much. I use my wrist to steer and the hand to operate the gears and such.”

“Besides,” Obi-Wan continued as if he hadn’t spoken. “The last time you drove my car you crashed it.”

“That was over two decades ago!”

“And it’ll be two decades more before you drive any other car I own.”

Anakin huffed and crossed his arms as he looked out the window. The Organa’s gleaming towers were getting closer and closer, and much more intimidating. It’d been less than twenty-four hours since he’d been here but it felt like years.

“Are you sure we can just drive up to it like this?”

“Sure, why not?”

Because Ahsoka hated him. Because everyone else at this place hated him.

Obi-Wan turned off the busy street they were on and drove under the hotel’s tall and cavernous awning. He finally pulled to a stop at the curb in front of the main doors.

“Look, they’ve got valet service.”

Obi-Wan tossed the confused kid at the valet stand his keys. Anakin saw the kid exchange bewildered glances with a bellhop as they stared at Obi-Wan’s rusted and dirt-caked pickup.

“You’ll let that teenager drive your car but not me,” Anakin grumbled under his breath as they entered through the revolving doors.

Obi-Wan raised an eyebrow at him but didn’t comment. They walked side-by-side through the grand foyer of the hotel and didn’t make it five steps over the marble threshold before they were surrounded by security guards.

“I still don’t think the pat-down search was necessary,” Anakin groused from his corner in the too-shiny elevator. Seriously, how did they keep every surface in this hotel sparkling clean?

He could hear the smirk in Cody’s voice. “Had to make sure you weren’t carrying a weapon. Can’t be too careful.”

“Mm-hmm.”

“Poor Waxer was ready to call the real cops. I believe his exact words were that a ‘desert hippie’ and the ‘angry-looking vagrant from yesterday’ were causing a scene in the main lobby.”

“We weren’t _causing a scene_ , they ambushed us!”

Cody turned his head slightly so Anakin could see his raised eyebrow stretching the scar across his face.

“What Anakin _means_ to say,” Obi-Wan said with a glare directed at him, “is that we’re grateful that you could escort us up to see Ahsoka. Where did you say she was again?”

“Primrose Ballroom,” Cody answered.

“Hmm.”

Obi-Wan rubbed his beard thoughtfully. He turned to face the window taking up the whole of the back elevator wall and didn’t elaborate.

The elevator chimed and Cody ushered them out ahead of himself. But as soon as Obi-Wan stepped out of the car, Cody blocked Anakin with a thick arm across his chest. He turned a key in the elevator control panel and the doors smoothly slid shut, trapping them both inside the car. Cody grabbed Anakin by the collar of his t-shirt and slammed him none-too-gently against the wall.

“Hurt her again and I will dump your body in the middle of the goddamn desert for the vultures to pick clean. Understood?”

Anakin knew Cody was a scary guy. Las Vegas was a weird place with a lot of creeps. He’d seen Cody throw out guys twice his size from Bail’s club back when he was a bouncer. Hell, Anakin had even been on the receiving end of his snarl a few times over the years. But he’d never actually believed that Cody would do major bodily harm to him on purpose.

He believed it now.

Cody shoved him further into the wall with his forearm. “I said,” he growled, “do we have an understanding?”

Anakin nodded sharply. “Yeah. I get it,” he croaked.

“Good.” Cody released him and took a step back.

“I’m not here to hurt her. Ever again,” Anakin promised, shaking out his shoulders.

Cody watched him shrewdly. “Good,” he said again. He finally took his key out of the console with a sharp twist of his wrist, and the elevator doors slid open again with a ding.

“Have a good chat?” Obi-Wan smiled placidly.

Anakin quickly stepped a safe distance away from Cody. “Yup.”

“Excellent.”

“Primrose is to the right,” Cody said from behind him. Anakin jumped involuntarily. “They’re setting up for a Christmas Day wedding tomorrow in Saguaro, the only other room up here.”

“Cody, who named the ballrooms at the Organa?” Obi-Wan asked.

“Ahsoka. Why?”

“No reason.”

Cody pushed open a set of doors that led to a large light-filled ballroom. Anakin immediately spotted Ahsoka standing next to Rex along a wall of windows easily twenty feet high. Great stone pillars framed the pair against the backdrop of the low mountains beyond. Ahsoka and Rex were both dressed casually in jeans and sweaters, not the fancy workwear he was used to seeing them in.

Rex noticed them first, or at least acknowledged their arrival first. He whispered something to Ahsoka and then nodded at whatever her response was.

“Come on.” Cody gave Anakin a nudge to his back and he stumbled forward.

“Hello, Skyguy,” Ahsoka greeted when they neared.

He blinked. “You haven’t called me that in years.”

She considered that, then nodded. “You’re probably right.”

“I’ll be out in the hall,” Rex told her. Ahsoka caught his hand before he could do more than take a half-step away and pulled him back to kiss him briefly on the lips.

“Thanks,” she said to Rex with a content smile Anakin hadn’t seen in quite some time.

Anakin turned a puzzled glance at Obi-Wan as he inhaled audibly.

Red-faced and not making eye contact with anyone, Rex quickly grabbed Cody’s elbow, who was positively shaking with mirth, and marched them both out of the room.

“It seems there have been several new developments since we last saw each other, my dear,” Obi-Wan said archly.

Anakin looked from Obi-Wan to Ahsoka. “What are you talking about?”

Ahsoka squared her shoulders. She took a deep breath and then looked straight ahead, staring somewhere in the middle distance between Obi-Wan’s and Anakin’s shoulders.

“Rex and I are together,” she announced confidently.

He waited for one of them to explain what was happening.

“Yes, and?” Anakin prompted.

Ahsoka glared at him. “What do you mean _and_? This just happened last night.”

“Well now I’m really lost. I thought you’d been together for… a lot longer than that. Why did you think I punched him?”

She frowned and looked at him like he’d grown a second head in the last two minutes. “You did that like twelve years ago, Anakin! You thought we’ve been a couple for _twelve years_?!”

“Yeah.” He shrugged. “I mean, I thought it was obvious. And then when I confronted him that time, he didn’t deny that he had feelings for you.”

Ahsoka rubbed her temples with both hands. “Oh my god...”

“What!”

Obi-Wan sighed. “We’re going to have to work on your tactfulness.”

They talked for hours. About anything and everything. Anakin told them both about his life as a magician working with Palpatine, and how the fantasy of that life burst almost as soon as he’d made it a reality. How he’d wrestled with his own sense of self for years while he tried to justify his choices.

And he heard how Obi-Wan had finished building his home. Mostly alone, but with help from the rest of their friends in town too, whenever the Organa could spare them. Anakin finally told him how sorry he was that he didn’t help. That was supposed to be their project, and their home.

Ahsoka hesitantly shared her decision to accept a promotion at the hotel. He didn’t quite understand what that meant for her, but Obi-Wan seemed happy with the announcement so he went along with it.

“Ahsoka, can I ask about the names of these ballrooms?” Obi-Wan asked her once their heavy conversations had come to a natural endpoint.

She’d already related the story of how the hotel was built, and then how she used it as a blueprint for other hotels. Anakin had no idea she was so important in Bail’s business. He’d always assumed she had some power, sure, but not that she was the be-all end-all of operations for what seemed like countless hotels around the world.

Ahsoka let a soft smile settle on her lips. “These were the first rooms I named in the hotel. Bail thought we should have one large ballroom up here, but I knew we needed two. People that want to come to an event on the top floor of the Organa want to see either the Strip or the mountains, but they have different energies. The two rooms represent the push and pull of nature. On one side, Saguaro, you see everything men built. The glitz and haze of the city, yes. But also the people going about their lives. Living, breathing, and loving. On the other side, Primrose, you see what lies beyond. The mountains to the west and the hint of wildness we can never and should never forget.”

Anakin found himself wondering just when his little sister had grown up. There was more she wasn’t saying though, and he thought he knew where Obi-Wan was going with this line of questions.

“And the names, Saguaro and Primrose?”

Ahsoka smiled wider and looked away from the window to face them. “Saguaro, because it is not native to the area around Las Vegas. But it is still a tall, proud plant that represents survival and even abundance in a harsh climate. People bring it here to decorate their lives and be reminded of the good that can come out of a desert.

“And Primrose. I named it after the Evening Primrose that grows in the Upper Sonoran. It only blooms at night and by the next day it’s closed its petals again. People say that means it represents a quick-changing heart, fickleness. But yet it comes back night after night, year after year, and provides nourishment and beauty. It is overlooked, yet it is steady.”

Anakin felt tears gathering in his eyes. “Ahsoka…” he whispered.

Ahsoka took his hand in hers and then shattered his heart.

“I named Saguaro after you, Anakin.” With her other hand she reached out to Obi-Wan, who took it dazedly. “And Primrose after you, Obi-Wan.

“I always had hope.”


	6. Cody

“ _Please_ will someone get the intoxicated Santa off the roulette table?”

Cody hated how many times he’d barked some variation of that sentence into his radio today.

Oh how he despised Christmas.

The door to the security monitoring room swung open behind him but he paid it no mind.

“I swear to all that is holy, Trapper, if you don’t get your ass to your assigned quadrant and start your patrol—”

His threat went unfinished as his radio was ripped out of his hand. Cody reflexively rammed his elbow in his attacker’s gut. Or would’ve, if he wasn’t blocked by another hand grabbing his elbow and whirling him about.

“Lighten up, Cody. You’re making me look like a happy-go-lucky fella in comparison.” Gregor’s cheerful face stared back at him under the fluffy white brim of a red Santa hat.

“You _are_ happy-go-lucky, dumbass,” Cody growled. “And why are you wearing that hat?” His arm was starting to hurt from the odd angle Gregor held it pinned behind his back.

“I’m conforming to the capitalist society we find ourselves in.”

Cody let out a frustrated exhale. “Forget I asked. Why are you here, Gregor?”

“I’m on the schedule.”

“No, you’re not. I am.”

“Did you look at the updated one the boss sent out?”

“What boss? I make the schedules.”

Gregor shrugged. “Not this week apparently.”

Cody finally gave in and checked his work phone with the hand that wasn’t being pinched behind his back. Sure enough, buried under the other emails he’d ignored, there was a message from Bail saying he’d had to rearrange the casino pit schedule and how he’s sorry for the inconvenience to everyone blah blah blah.

“I don’t care about working over the holiday, if that’s what this is about,” Cody told Gregor when he’d looked through the attachment and seen that he was in fact switched to a shift in two days.

“Tell that to your radio.” Gregor lifted the battered thing up and shook it so the loose battery plate rattled. Cody had dropped it this morning from the top of a ladder as he was trying to reattach one of the giant shiny (read: totally unnecessary) ornaments that hung from the casino ceiling. He was planning on having Rex fix it for him later, once his brother was back from his own hastily executed vacation days.

“Who put Organa up to this?”

“Hey, don’t look at me.” Gregor finally released his arm and tossed him the radio back. “But like I told the big guy when he called, I don’t care about working on the twenty-fifth either. I still follow the Julian calendar.”

Cody stared at him. “Nope, not getting pulled into this again, man.”

He tore his earpiece off and ripped the mic out of his sleeve. If the owner of the company wanted to give him the next two days off, who was he to argue.

“This is all just the Catholic Church trying to impose its will on the world!”

Cody flipped him the bird and beelined out of the room. “I’m not engaging with this narrative!”

“The Pope can’t tell _me_ what day to celebrate Christmas!”

It was only when Cody had made it to his car in the staff lot that he realized he had no idea where he was going. He pulled out his personal phone to find that he had several missed calls and texts. They didn’t make any sense, so he cut to the chase.

“What the hell is going on?” he asked when his brother picked up.

“Cody, finally! Are you on the road yet?”

“On the road where?”

“He hasn’t left yet,” Rex whispered to someone off the call. Then, to Cody, “Obi-Wan’s place. But first there’s some things I need you to pick up…”

* * *

Cody shut his car door behind him with a very satisfying slam.

“Why _the fuck_ did I just buy three air mattresses, a case of champagne, and an eight-foot-tall inflatable dragon wearing a Santa hat?!”

“Cody!”

He got half a second of warning before he was attacked by Ahsoka in the form of a hug. She wrapped her arms and legs around his torso and clung to him like a koala with abandonment issues.

“What the fuck, Ahsoka…” he grunted. He’d been reduced to profanity-laced questions because nothing made any goddamn sense anymore.

Rex came into view but took one pitying look at Cody and shrugged. He wandered off toward the trunk of the SUV as if this was above his pay grade. Which it might be, if the rumors running rampant at the Organa this morning were true.

“I’m so glad you’re here!”

It sounded like Ahsoka had been partaking in a bit of her own devil’s water. At least they hadn’t asked Cody to bring any hard liquor or he’d be worried the lightweight in his arms would die.

“Ungh—” He shifted her around so that she was clinging to his back instead of his front as it looked like she wasn’t any closer to letting go. “And just why _are_ we here?”

“Because Christmas is saved!” she declared with a sweeping arm to indicate the general world.

And really, the general world was looking pretty festive right about now. Obi-Wan’s clay houses, which he’d never seen decorated for any holiday since they’d been built, were positively covered in Christmas lights. The arches for the doors and windows were strung up with multicolored lights, the paths between structures were lined in fucking lights, the _giant fucking_ _Joshua tree_ growing near the main house—was _not_ covered in lights because that could probably compromise the structural integrity of the tree… but there were lights on every other vaguely large object in the vicinity, for fuck’s sake!

“Well that answers the dragon question,” he grumbled mostly to himself.

“Oh my gosh.” Ahsoka exclaimed, slapping him on the side of the face in the process. “You have a dragon?!”

Cody trudged them over to the back of his car. “Rex, a little help with your girl?”

Rex was unloading the various boxes from the trunk and replied without looking up, “Not my—” He stopped in the process of setting the box for the aforementioned inflatable Christmas dragon on the ground. “Oh, I guess she is my girl now.”

“Yup!” Ahsoka heaved her body weight from Cody’s back toward the general direction of Rex, who caught her with something between a laugh and a grunt of pain.

Cody stretched and popped his back once he was fully divested of his passenger. “I need a drink,” he muttered.

“And that answers the champagne question,” a voice behind them said.

He turned to find Anakin striding over from the direction of the main house. Cody had seen Anakin only a handful of times since the big falling out all those years ago, and most of those times were not pleasant memories. Anakin approached him cautiously once he was close enough to be in the light of the SUV’s headlights.

“Skywalker,” Cody greeted.

“Hey, Cody.” Anakin shuffled his feet nervously and Cody found himself envying his brother who was currently far more pleasantly occupied. “Um, listen—"

Cody held a hand up. “Please don’t. Not right now. Maybe not ever.”

Anakin frowned dejectedly but nodded. “’Course. Yeah, no worries.”

Cody was tired. He’d already worked half a shift, then ran all over town getting the things on Rex’s list, and now he’d just driven an hour through the desert to get here. He was done with the Skywalker drama and he was done waiting for some big earth-shattering _event_ that fixed everything. People were assholes, and people weren’t assholes. And sometimes, if you were lucky, the assholes were also your friends.

“Look, man. Like I said yesterday, hurt them—” he gestured to Rex, who was still valiantly attempting to unload the cases from the trunk, and Ahsoka, who was doing her darndest to hinder him, “—or anyone else I have the unfortunate burden of caring about, and you’re dead. Capiche?”

Anakin nodded quickly. “Capiche.”

Cody had a feeling of déjà vu from threatening a similar fate in an elevator yesterday. But unlike yesterday, Cody knew that those same idiots he’d threatened Anakin on behalf of were happy today.

“Then I think we’re good,” he said after a long stare down just for good measure.

“Well, that was the easiest one yet." Anakin mussed his hair absentmindedly.

So magic boy was on an apology tour, was he? Cody smirked.

“Have you talked to Organa yet?”

“Okay, I see the point you’re trying to make and you’re very right.”

“Bail? Is Bail coming?” Ahsoka interjected. She detached from Rex and slotted herself underneath Anakin’s outstretched arm, her brother staggering slightly from the force of the impact.

“Um, no. Sorry,” Anakin told her.

Ahsoka pouted, but recovered quickly. “That’s okay. I told him to bring Breha and come for brunch tomorrow.”

Cody would’ve paid good money to see Anakin’s eyes bulge like that again. He wished he’d been recording it.

“Cool!” Anakin said unconvincingly, then trailed off into his own little world, “Cool, cool, cool...”

Cody clapped him on the back. “Don’t worry, buddy. Organa barely knows any Vegas gangsters.”

Anakin stared at him with scared eyes, but Cody just laughed good-naturedly and shoved him toward the crates that still needed to be carried inside.

All part of Cody’s diabolical plan to scare Anakin toward the light.

“Think he’d let me perform my new magic show on stage?” Anakin asked as they carried some of the boxes to the main house.

“I have no idea,” Cody answered truthfully. “But I would very much like to be there when you ask that question.”

The air mattresses, Cody discovered, were for them to lay on out in the desert while huddled under every blanket that Rex and Ahsoka could steal from the hotel.

“Our original plan was to do like the olden times and just sit on the blankets,” Ahsoka shouted over the noise of the air pumps filling the plastic mattresses.

“But I vetoed that,” Obi-Wan said, rubbing his neck tiredly.

“So now we’re upgrading!”

The loud whirring noises stopped and Rex capped off the last valve. “That should do it,” he announced.

They found an open speck of land not too far away from the buildings and set up their enclave. Obi-Wan dragged over a simple metal firepit and got to work lighting the kindling while the rest of them arranged the mattresses, blankets, and refreshments. Ahsoka set up a wireless speaker and soon soft jazz versions of old Christmas songs were playing in the background.

“Would you like to do the honors, Snips?” Anakin held out one of the bottles of champagne.

“I think I should do that, maybe.”

Rex snatched the bottle out of Ahsoka’s loose grip on it, probably preventing her from putting an eye out based on how close she’d been holding it to her face. She scowled up at him cutely, but was quickly distracted by the sound of an owl hooting off in the distance. Rex popped the cork with a satisfying _pop-hiss_ and then they were all taking turns swigging out of the bottle.

Anakin sighed, “I missed this.” He was sprawled out and taking up an entire mattress by himself.

Obi-Wan scoffed at him and set the champagne bottle on Anakin’s chest. “I thought you hated sleeping out here.”

“That was when we only had tents,” he corrected lightheartedly. Anakin passed the bottle on without taking a drink from it. “But now that I know I can go inside to a clean mud hut anytime I want to? Pretty great.”

“Will you people stop calling my home mud huts! They are a complex mixture of concrete and earth over a very supportive rebar frame.”

“Yeah, you just described a fancy mud hut,” Ahsoka told him.

Obi-Wan groaned, but he joined in on the others’ laughter soon enough.

Now this was like the olden days. Except, that wasn’t quite right either. This was light, freeing. But also healthy and mature. Everyone here knew exactly who the other was and accepted them.

Cody felt a warm glow in his chest that was only forty percent due to the alcohol. He felt like a sap, but as he looked around at his friends— his family, he thought, yeah, this was okay. There’d be tiffs in the future, sure, but he had faith in these idiots that they could work through it without another fifteen-year feud. And maybe, just maybe, they could make this a new tradition. Christmas dragon and all.

It wasn’t the same, but that was okay. Good, even. It was something entirely its own.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Thanks for reading and happy holidays :)


End file.
